but the imputation conveyed in the closing sentence of Ellen's very edifying lecture gave a different direction to Isabel's thoughts, and she instantly replied, with considerable warmth-"Nay, Ellen, you much mistake and greatly wrong me, if you imagine, for a moment, that I have any secrets from my mother. Oh, no! shall I repose with less confidence upon her bosom than when I clung to it in infancy? Ellen, she has nursed me in sickness, has borne with the petulance of my childhood and the waywardness of my youth, has ever been my kindest, best of friends; and shall I treat her with less confidence than many a silly girl gives to her schoolfellow? If I should ever harbour a thought which I should fear to confide to my mother, I shall be sure that it is a sinful one, and I will pray to God to deliver me from its power. With regard to this young gentleman, other than kindly I cannot feel towards one who has conferred upon me an obligation which I may not deem a light one; and, should I ever entertain for him sentiments which I cannot cherish with propriety or safety, she, to whom my heart shall ever be open, will not fail to warn me of my danger." Ellen, who really loved Isabel, forgetting the monitress in the friend, threw her arms around

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her neck, implored her forgiveness for having unintentionally distressed her, and promised never to allude to the subject again.

In a few months after this conversation, Edward Clinton left school for the University; and year after year passed away, and each succeeding one found the circumstances of the widow and her daughter materially changed for the worse. The fashions had altered, and the article from the manufacture of which they had once derived a comfortable subsistence, was no longer, to use a mercantile phrase, in demand. Isabel, who was

a pattern of filial affection, then resorted to her needle, and submitted to numberless privations, in order that the reverse of fortune might not be felt by her mother, whose age and infirmities required increased attention, and many comforts which were more than ever beyond their reach.

One fine evening in the spring, Isabel was sitting at needlework in the garden, almost resigning herself to those melancholy feelings which her unpropitious circumstances so naturally produced, and which even religion, powerful as was its influence upon her heart and conduct, occasionally failed to mitigate; and she was contrasting in her mind the present season of difficulty and distress

with those past and happy days when she had little care upon her mind. Among other objects which the retrospect called up to fancy's view, was the form of Edward Clinton; and she thought upon the merry look and the courteous smile with which he was wont to greet her and her mother on a Saturday afternoon. "But he has forgotten me," said Isabel mentally; "for the memory of their good deeds dwells not long with the generous." She sighed, and looked up towards the well remembered spot in the fence of the garden, where he was wont to post himself, with his fishing-rod in his hand and his basket belted under his arm; when, lo! an apparition met her eyes which occasioned her to utter an exclamation, and, dropping her work, she hurried into the cottage.

I am sure I do not know what there was to be frightened at, for she might have paced the most populous churchyard, from Midsummer to Christmas, and not have met with a more handsome apparition. It was Edward Clinton, in very flesh and blood.

The occurrences of the few weeks which followed this rencontre, I am not able to narrate, but I infer that my friend made good use of his time; since, on a fine sunshiny summer's morning, it was

reported that one of the village bells had been cracked, and that, with reference to the occasion, Mr. Clinton considered himself bound to furnish

the steeple with a new set. It was, indeed, whispered, by some officious and ill-natured persons, that the said bell had received an awkward knock before, and that Edward was the first wealthy man who had been married at the church since the accident; but I attach no credit whatever to the insinuation. Little remains for me to record, except that the humility which adorned the tenant of the cottage survived her change of fortune, to grace the mistress of the mansion; while Edward, so far from regretting that he had taken to his bosom a dowerless bride, became daily more convinced of the truth, that a woman's richest portion is virtue and affection.

THE

SABBATH DAY AND SABBATH SCHOOL.

A HYMN

FOR THOSE WHO TEACH AND THOSE WHO LEARN.

THE Sabbath of the Lord,

The Sabbath is our day;

For then we read and hear God's word,

We learn to praise and pray.

That day with songs we bless,

It hath the light of seven,

When Christ, the Sun of righteousness,

Shines on our path to heaven.

Ours is the Sunday-school;
Its lessons may we prize,

And grow by every Gospel rule
Unto salvation wise.

So all our lives below,

In wisdom's pleasant ways,

The fruits of Sunday-schools shall show The bliss of Sabbath-days.

Lord of the Sabbath send

Prosperity and peace,

Till tasks and teaching here shall end, Tongues fail, and knowledge cease;

Then heaven itself shall be
One Sunday-school above,
And undisturb'd eternity

One Sabbath-day of love.

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J. MONTGOMERY.